1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a program guide displaying method, apparatus and computer program, and more particularly to a program guide displaying method, apparatus and computer program for electric program guidance.
This application claims the priority of the Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-055164 filed on Feb. 27, 2004, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
2. Description of the Related Art
These days, program guides are provided to viewers and listeners via various media. The program guides include a today's program guide, weekly program guide, monthly program guide, and also a program guide for each of categories such as sports, music, movie, etc.
In many of program guide layouts, there are combined at least two or three of a time axis along which airtimes are indicated, a date axis along which airdates are indicated and a station axis along which stations that broadcast the programs are indicated (cf. the Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2001, 169197).
In the case of a program guide consisting of time and date axes, for example, however, many programs in the program guides to be broadcast from broadcasting stations have to be checked for searching the program guide for a desired program. In this case, no efficient search can be made for such a desired program, and no efficient selection can be made between the broadcasting stations.
To improve the efficiency of such searching and eliminate the necessity of selection between the broadcasting stations, program guides may be aggregated into a single program guide. In this case, however, if there exist programs which are due on the same date and whose airtimes overlap each other, there remains a plurality of program information. Therefore, it is not possible to search for a desired program with any improved efficiency even with the plurality of program information being indicated in cells of the program guide. Also, when only one piece of program information is displayed, the entire amount of information is smaller but another program information cannot be checked.